HRD to Organise ‘Smart India Hackathon 2017’ for IIT and NIT Students

Highlights:
IIT, NIT students will now be giving solutions to some of the toughest problems faced by Union Ministries.

Solutions and answers to some of the toughest problems faced by our Union Ministries will soon be given out by the young and bright minds studying at IITs, NITs and other top notch institutes. These brains will be a part of a 36-hour of an excessive brainstorming session at ‘Smart India Hackathon 2017’ in the month of January and February. The marathon will be organised by Union HRD Ministry in order to come up with out-of-the-box tech solutions to these problems. The programme will involve 30 lakh students from all technology institutes across the country.

According to officials, it has been found out that in Smart India Hackathon, students will be competing against each other in a 36-hour non-stop digital programming competition and will come up with solutions to solve various problems provided to them.

A senior official added that through this competition, students will be motivated and given a platform to think out of the box and come up with innovative and productive solutions by using their creativity and experience, for some of the most challenging problems faced by the country.

Sources reveal that ministries of different states were assigned a task by V S Oberoi, Higher Education Secretary in the HRD ministry to figure out 30 problems faced by the country which can be given as riddles to the students.

An official said that the hackathon will be conducted across 33 centres and already nearly 26 ministries have agreed to participate in the contest.

The event will be organised with the help of joint efforts from the HRD Ministry, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and another body i4c. Also, the winners of the contest will be provided with lucrative cash rewards.

While telling about the contest, an official said that the questions/ riddles in front of the students will be from both urban and rural areas, i.e the problems faced by Panchayat as well as those faced by the Central Government.

The prize money that will be given to the first position holders will be Rs. 1 lakh. For those who secure the second and the third place, the contest will provide them lucrative prizes too.